


Accidents

by BarPurple



Series: BarPurple's House of Horror 2017 [10]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Character Death is NOT Belle or Rumple, F/M, Supernatural Elements
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-17
Updated: 2017-11-05
Packaged: 2019-01-18 15:51:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,516
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12391293
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BarPurple/pseuds/BarPurple
Summary: There have always been 'accidents' around Belle, but this is getting out of hand.-=Winner 2018 TEA - Best Supernatural =-





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [belizafryler](https://archiveofourown.org/users/belizafryler/gifts).



“Why did you tell him? I asked you to keep it to yourself.”

Mary Margaret paused in picking a book and glanced at Belle with a slight frown; “Oh I didn’t think you meant your father.”  
Belle ground her teeth together in frustration. From her tone it was clear that Mary Margaret didn’t see that she’d done anything wrong. She should have known this would happen; MM couldn’t keep a secret if her life depended on it.

“When I asked you for the reference I clearly said please don’t tell anyone about this, my father included.”

MM put the book she’d been considering back on the shelf in the wrong place and turned a sweet smile on Belle.

“Oh honey, you couldn’t keep him in the dark about applying for jobs in the city. And now he can support you, I’d love to have my parents to share important decisions with.”

Belle could only stare at her in disbelief; MM had lost both her parents after high school, but always seemed to forget that Belle’s own mother had died when she was young. What she failed to understand was that not everybody had a perfect relationship with their parents. Thanks to MM’s inability to keep a secret Belle’s morning had started with a hellish conversation with her father, who wasn’t at all pleased that his little girl was thinking about abandoning him for the big city. Her father had once again forgotten that his little girl was twenty-seven and had her own plans for life that didn’t include staying in Storybrooke forever. 

MM was wittering on about how wonderful it would be now that Moe knew of her plans.

“… of course, Mayor Mills was surprised, but I’m sure she’ll find someone to replace you before you leave.”

“Wait. You told the Mayor as well?”

“Yes, she was in the diner too.”

Belle ran her hands over her face. Not only had she broken her confidence and told her father, she’d casually aired her private business in the middle of Granny’s, there wouldn’t be a soul in town who didn’t know of her plans by the end of the day, and everyone would feel the need to give her their two cents worth. This could not get any worse. Why couldn’t MM keep her mouth shut? 

She looked up and saw a flicker of gold out of the corner of her eye. Mary Margaret was still talking as she stepped forward and caught her foot on Belle’s handbag. Belle watched in horror as MM fell and landed face first on the edge of the book trolley. She twisted oddly in the air, and banged her face off the bookcase before landing heavily on the floor.

“Oh my God!”

The stillness that had fallen over Belle broke once MM hit the floor. The first aid courses she had taken kicked in and she was pulling her cell from her pocket before she’d even crouched down next to the gasping, bleeding woman.

“It’s gonna be okay, MM”

Mary Margaret flinched away from Belle’s reassuring hand, and moaned something incoherent as she pointed behind Belle. There was another flicker of gold, but when Belle looked around they were in no danger of the shelves falling which was the only thing she could think of to have panicked MM. Then again, she’d had just had two nasty bumps to the head, she was probably seeing stars. Belle punched three digits into her cell and tried to sound confident and comforting.

“I’m calling an ambulance, we’ll get you to the hospital in no time.”

“991, what is your emergency?”

“There’s been an accident in the library.”

-x-x-x-

The talk of the night in Granny’s was poor Mary Margaret’s broken jaw. The ambulance arriving at the library had caused quite a stir, but not many people had seen MM. Leroy, who worked at the hospital, had been drinking for free because he could fill in some of the details that people were desperate to know.

“Blood everywhere, poor thing, I thought she’d be hit with something at first, but Belle said that she tripped. Must have been a hell of landing, MM looked like she’d been in a fist fight.”

Granny asked; “So, what had MM done to upset Belle?”

“What do you mean?”

Granny sniffed; “Oh come on, you know as well as I do that when someone upsets Belle it’s only a matter of time before they have an ‘accident’.”

The gathered townsfolk nodded. It wasn’t that people didn’t like Belle, it was just there was a history of accidents happening to people around her. Granny was more than happy to rehash the past to make her point.

“There’s always been something odd about that girl. Anyone who upsets her in the slightest ends up in trouble. Look at that time Ruby lost Belle’s keys and ended up locked in the freezer for hours.”

A general murmur of agreement sounded through the crowd, and others began to chime in with stories of the misfortunes that had happened around Belle.

“Remember when Merida beaned her with a softball at the town picnic? Took her flowers the next day to say sorry and had a shelf of books collapse on her head. She was unconscious for hours.”

“What about that time Nottingham hit on her in the Rabbit Hole? I know he was probably drunk, but I’ve never understood how he managed to trip over her pool cue and bite through his tongue like that.”

“And every time her and Moe have a barney, he losses real bad at cards.”

Leroy snorted; “Are you seriously trying to blame Belle for her father’s shitty luck at poker?”

That got a laugh from everyone, it did sound too ridiculous. Bad luck just happened without rhythm or reason, it wasn’t Belle’s fault that strange things happened to the people around her more often than most. 

-x-x-x-

After spending most of the day at the hospital, and being grilled by Dr Whale and Sheriff Swan about the accident Belle kept the library closed for the rest of the afternoon. There wasn’t much in the way of mess, but MM had bled quite a bit, apparently because her teeth had split her cheek; Belle shuddered she could have done without that detail from the nurse. She’d manged to avoid the details of the surgery MM was going to have to wire her jaw so the two breaks could heal. The rather uncharitable thought that at least MM wouldn’t be spilling anyone’s secrets for a while occurred to Belle, and she felt bad that she didn’t feel worse for thinking that. 

Donning a pair of marigolds, she set about cleaning up, and getting the place ready for opening the next morning, business as usual. At least that was the plan, but just as she had the library smelling lemony fresh she got a text message from the Mayor’s office demanding her presence at nine am sharp.

Belle groaned and dropped her phone on to the counter top. It wouldn’t be too bad if this was just going to be a concerned Mayor checking in after an accident in a public building, but because MM blabbed that she was applying for a job in the city Regina was going to be on the war path. Belle decided that a hot bath and a good book was the only way to sensibly prepare for a torture session disguised as a meeting. 

She left her cell on the counter and went to run her bath. A shimmer of gold danced around the phone and the message from the Mayor appeared on screen. A growl sounded just beyond the range of human hearing and the golden glint dispersed into thin air.


	2. Chapter 2

Belle took a moment to double check her make-up and smooth her clothing down for the third time. It was five to nine, she’d been at the town hall for the past ten minutes, but Regina didn’t like people being early any more than she liked them being late. Just another power play from the Mayor who went out of her way to ensure nobody ever forgot who was in charge in the town.

At exactly nine Belle knocked on the door to the Mayor’s office.

“Enter.”

Regina didn’t look up as Belle entered, but that was to be expected. She kept writing in a file until Belle had counted to fifty in her head and only then did she look up with a faintly quizzical expression on her face.

“Ah, of course Miss French. Take a seat.”

Belle had barely lowered herself into the offered chair before Regina started.

“The incident in the library yesterday, explain to me what happened.”

She had been through this so many times yesterday with Doctor Whale and Sheriff Swan that the words came easily.

“Mary Margaret and I were talking as she chose a new book. She tripped on my handbag and fell face first into the book trolley. She twisted and hit the book shelf. I called the ambulance and we got her to hospital.”

Regina nodded slowly as she sliced up her apple Danish. 

“So, what we have is an accident. The library has quite the history of accidents, doesn’t it?”

Belle bit her lip as Regina flipped open a file folder, quite a thick folder in fact.

“Let’s see we have books falling on Merida Scot.”

“That was a loose shelf and I had it fixed immediately.”

Regina raised an eyebrow at the interruption and continued; “Your father slipped on a wet floor, and there was the incident with my sister.”

Belle knew that her father slipping was an accident. It had been raining that day and the floor was wet, she’d put out signs, but her father hadn’t seen them. Zelena was a very different story, one that the Mayor blamed Belle for. How Belle was supposed to have known that Zelena had ignored all the warning signs and gone into the old elevator was beyond her. She had spent a weekend wandering around in the cavernous basement of the library before she found her way back to the elevator and stumbled into the library, delirious and quite mad, babbling about golden devils and magic.

Zelena now spent her days in the secure wing of the hospital, and while Belle felt a little sorry for her, she would admit that she had never liked the woman. It was difficult to muster any real empathy for a woman who had once spiked her drink at a party just because she was bored and thought that watching Belle hallucinate on LSD would be entertaining.

Regina had used her influence to cover up both Zelena’s assault on Belle and the incident that led to her being locked away. There were whispers in town of course, it would be impossible for there not to be, but the only person who ever threw this particular story in Belle’s face was Regina, which was deeply unfair since Belle was under a gag order about it all. She took a slow breath, knowing that if she responded to Regina’s taunts she’d be threaten with legal action.

“The library is a busy public building, there are bound to be accidents.”

It was a weak defence, but it was the best Belle had, and judging by the smug curl of Regina’s lips she knew it too.

“Accidents are to be expected, but one would also expect loyalty from the head librarian and apparently we don’t have that. How are your applications progressing, Miss French?”

Belle knew there was no way Regina would let the information she had gathered from Mary Margaret lie. She steeled her spine and readied herself to defend her decision to leave town. Before she could speak Regina waved her hand; “Actually it is for the best that you are looking for other employment. After this recent accident I have decided to close the library until we can conduct a full safety assessment.”

Belle could only gap at her for a moment; “But, surely the library can remain open while the assessment is done?”

“Oh no, that would not do at all. I shall put my plans to the town council next week and when they are accepted the library will close immediately. You will have to vacate your apartment.”

Regina had no doubt that the town council would do exactly as she wanted, they were all her stooges and yes-men. Belle felt panic rising in her chest, she was going to be jobless and homeless; Regina had effectively trapped her in town; all the money she had carefully saved so she could move was going to be eaten up on finding somewhere to live at short notice. The Mayor was watching her discomfort with a smirk, she popped a piece of Danish into her mouth and Belle saw a flicker of gold.

“Oh no, not again.”

Regina’s eyes bulged as the mouthful of apple pastry stuck in her throat. Belle leapt up from her chair so fast it toppled over and crashed to the floor. It was difficult to lug the taller woman into position, but Belle managed it and performed the Heimlich. It took two attempts, but the blockage finally came loose. Regina slumped sideways into her chair, and Belle frowned, her breathing sounded far too laboured.

“Mayor Mills? Regina? What’s wrong?”

Regina’s face was ashen, and she was clawing at her chest. Belle grabbed the phone from the desk and dialled 9-1-1 without looking. 

“I need an ambulance at the Mayor’s office as fast as possible.”

-x-x-x-

Belle stared at her toes. The blue leather of her shoes looked shockingly bright against the drab grey of the cell floor. She sighed and closed her eyes. It wasn’t her first time in the Sheriff’s cell, but this time she was under suspicion of murder. The ambulance had arrived in less than five minutes, but Regina hadn’t lasted that long. Sheriff’s Swan’s eyes had been cold and hard as Belle had tried to explain what had happened, she’d read Belle her rights in a flat tone and not spoken to her since.

“We need to talk French.”

Belle looked at Emma and waited as the Sheriff moved across the room to stand in front of the cell.

“What do you know about Regina’s health?”

Belle frowned in confusion; “Nothing at all. Why would I?”

“You never overheard anything about her physical state? She never confided in you about a medical condition?”

Belle couldn’t hold back a laugh at that; “The Mayor I and were hardly friends, we didn’t even chat about the weather let alone anything so personal.”

Emma folded her arms over her chest and stared at Belle, the scrutiny was uncomfortable, but Belle held her eye. She wasn’t sure what Emma was getting at with this line of questions, but she had nothing to hide.

“Regina had a heart defect. Apparently by performing the Heimlich you caused something to rupture.”

“I had no idea, I was just trying to save her from choking.”

The Sheriff stared at her for a long moment, and then sighed and pulled her keys from her belt.

“I’m letting you go. It looks like this was an unfortunate accident,” – Emma caught her elbow as she walked out of the cell, - “Just don’t leave town, hey?”

Belle nodded, feeling more trapped in that moment than she had while locked in the cell. Emma returned her belongings and Belle tried to walk calmly out of the Sheriff’s Office when all she wanted to do was break into a run.

-x-x-x-

A ripple of gold danced around the tires on the police cruiser and in a hiss of air the car settled on to the wheel rims. In Belle’s apartment a softer shimmer of gold settled around the refrigerator, leaving a bottle of white wine inside and a tub of ice cream in the icebox.


	3. Chapter 3

Belle locked the door behind her and finally took a deep breath. She didn’t know where to start trying to process today. She kicked her shoes off and stumbled into the kitchen. She found a bottle of wine in the fridge that she could have sworn she hadn’t bought, but she wasn’t going to argue with the best thing to happen to her today. She got the corkscrew out of the drawer before she second-guessed herself; she hadn’t bought wine in weeks, and her fridge was empty enough that she would have noticed it sitting there. She squinted at the bottle looking for a shimmer of gold, and then groaned to herself.

“Going crazy Belle. No shimmer of gold is going to hurt people and then put wine in your fridge.”

She opened the bottle and poured herself a sensible amount, before remembering that Regina had seen fit to have closure notices posted on the library doors while Belle was in her office this morning; she filled the glass to the brim. She could get as drunk tonight and worry about being out of work and homeless tomorrow.

 

Unseen by Belle, the Imp known as Gold sat cross-legged on the breakfast bar. He twisted his fingers together in worry as he watched her through the Veil that separated her world from his. He hadn’t meant for the witch of a Mayor to die, how was he to know that she had a faulty heart? Humans were such strange fragile things. He’d only wanted Belle to save her, so the Mayor would owe her a favour, and maybe start being nicer to her; it just hadn’t worked out like that. Now Belle was in more trouble and so very sad. He really wasn’t good at this whole guardian protector thing.

Gold tapped his claws against his chin as he mused on how he’d ended up here. He’d never intended to become Belle’s guardian, he was an Imp, a cousin to Puck, a trickster. He was the cause of mishaps and annoyances, was it any wonder that his attempts to protect his self-appointed charge so often went awry? He smiled fondly at her, she’d put a funny film on and was laughing, the joy didn’t quite reach her eyes, but she was trying to cheer herself up. Belle wasn’t one for feeling sorry for herself, she always had a smile and a kind word for people, even people who treated her poorly.

He grinned to himself; that was how she had come into his life and turned his worldview on its head. In was in the nature of an Imp to be attracted to cruel jokes and pranks, so high schools were a natural haunt. He’d first seen Belle as the typical victim of the jokers in her high school, she was bookish, quiet, and tiny for her age. He’d seen a thousand students like her, just trying to keep their heads down and survive the hellish years that they would one day think fondly of once the rose-tinted glasses of memory slipped into place; but Belle, oh she was so much more than his first impression suggested. She took pranks pulled on her with an eye-roll and good humour, but she wouldn’t stand by and let anyone by bullied.

 

Belle paused the film and cocked her head to one-side. She was certain that she’d heard something from downstairs in the library. She’d locked the doors before she came up to her apartment, so there should be any one inside to make any noise. There had been a problem with rats not long after she took over, but Leroy had filled all the holes and put down traps. Another thump echoed from below, if that was a rat Leroy was going to need a bigger trap. Belle slid off the couch and tip-toed across to her closet. She’d kicked off her heels when she got home, but she reached past them and pulled on a battered pair of sneakers. If there was someone in the library, she didn’t want to risk a broken ankle should the need to run arise. With her cell phone in her hand she crept down the stairs, hoping that she was just going to find a stray cat, or a raccoon had found a way inside.

Gold watched carefully to see what Belle was up to, and followed her as she crept down into the library. He had a very bad feeling about this, but could do nothing to stop her. He slipped by her and took a fast look around the library for the source of the noise. At the sight of the man in a leather jacket prying at the locks that secured the old elevator his eyes went wide.

“What do you think you are doing?”

Gold swore under his breath; why couldn’t Belle have hung back and called for help? Now he’d have to be careful about how much he interfered, couldn’t have this thief seeing too much magic. He took up position in between Belle and the thief, ready to do anything to protect his charge. The thief turned slowly on his heel, a smug grin played at his lips as his eyes roved over Belle’s body.

“Well, aren’t you a pretty little thing,” – he whipped his hand from behind his back and aimed a gun at Belle’s chest, - “But totally useless to me right now.”

The gun fired, and Gold screamed. On Belle’s side of the Veil time slowed, Gold called his magic into his hands ready to tear his way through to her world.

“Are you certain you want to do that, Gold?”

His hair flicked about his face as he threw a pained look at the owner of the voice. Lounging against one of the tall bookcases was his cousin, Puck.

“I have to save her. She is going to die!”

Puck gave an easy shrug; “It is what mortals do, cousin.”

“Not her, not like this!”

Puck’s eyes narrowed, and he glanced up towards the ceiling, but his gaze was on something far beyond; “The worlds are not aligned, if you cross now there will be no coming back.”

Gold’s hands faltered. He looked at Belle, frozen so quickly that shock had not yet marred her features. He balled his hands into fists.

“I am doing this, she has to live.”

Puck gave a deep sigh; “Very well cousin, go with my blessing.”

Slashes of shimmering magic shot from Gold’s hands and tore a gap in the Veil. As he leapt through the tear a confusing jumble of images swirled in his mind, a past, family, friends, an education, a whole life that he had not lived, but he knew were his.

 

BANG!

 

The gun shot echoed around the room, and pain bloomed in Robin Gold’s shoulder. Somebody screamed, Gold thought it might have been him, and then there was a shout of “Hands up!”

Gold tried to comply, but gentle hands held him still and a soft voice said; “Easy now. Sheriff Swan doesn’t mean you, the ambulance will be here soon.”

He looked up into blue eyes, bright with tears, “Miss Belle? Are you hurt?”

“No, you saved me.”

“Oh, good.”

He must have passed out at that point because the next thing he was aware of was the sharp scratch of a needle.

“Ow!”

The stern looking nurse tutted at him; “Oh hush now, a little injection is nothing compared to what you’ve been through today. I’ll tell the Sheriff you are awake.”

He tried to make himself look presentable, which is an exercise in futility when wearing a hospital gown, and looked up when the door to his room opened. Sheriff Swan stalked in and stared at him as she pulled up a chair to his bedside; “How you feeling, Mr…”

It stung his pride a little that the Sheriff didn’t remember his name, she had arrested him for vagrancy twice this year, “Robin Gold.”

A look of recognition flicker over her face and she gave a tight nod.

“Okay Mr Gold, care to tell me what you were doing in the library this afternoon?”

He winced as he tried to take a deep breath.

“Go easy there, you got shot in the shoulder.”

“Oh, yeah, erm I was asleep in the alley, behind the library and I woke up to find a tall man with dark hair picking the lock to the back door. So, I followed him inside.”

“Why?”

“I don’t have a phone, so I was thinking I could call from inside…”

It wasn’t the best thought out plan now he considered it, but he didn’t want to tell the Sheriff that he was too worried about Miss Belle to run across the road to the diner for help.

“Okay, so you went inside, what happened next?”

“The man was trying to get into the old elevator, and then Miss Belle came downstairs,” – his eyes went wide, - “Miss Belle, is she ok? He tried to shoot her!”

“Stay calm, please. Belle is just fine, you knocked her out of the way, she’d a bit shaken up and Doctor Whale is checking her over now, okay?”

“Yes, thank you.”

The Sheriff’s eyes went hard, and she suddenly asked; “Do you know Killian Jones?”

Gold shook his head; “No who is he?”

She stared at him for a beat longer and was apparently satisfied with whatever she found in his face, “He’s the man who shot you. He was convinced that there is gold in the basement of the library, something to do with one of the patients in the secure wing, to be honest I could make a lot of sense of what he was saying, kept going on about you appearing out of thin air in a flash of gold sparks.”

Something stirred in Gold’s memory, but it was elusive and quickly disappeared, leaving a wry smile on his face; “If I could conjure gold I’d have an address to give you to put on my statement wouldn’t I Sheriff?”

She chuckled at him, and flipped her notebook closed; “Don’t think that is going to be a problem for you for a while Gold.”

With that strangely cryptic comment, she left the room. The door didn’t have chance to close before somebody else came in. Gold’s face lit up at the sight of this visitor.

“Miss Belle!”

She perched on the edge of his bed and gently covered his hand with hers.

“How are you feeling Mr Gold?”

 

Behind the Veil that separated the human world from that of the Fae, Puck watched his cousin and the human he had fallen in love with tentatively take the first steps on their courtship. He shook his head with a smile, “Lord, what fools these mortals be.”

Puck rolled his shoulders and cracked his knuckles, he had a certain thief to go and torment. The echo of Puck’s merry laughter didn’t sound in the human world, but something made Gold shiver, it wasn’t a bad feeling, in fact with Miss Belle sat talking quietly to him nothing could feel bad.


End file.
